Though I’ve been in somewhat of a nail polish slump, similarly to filling in gaps in my makeup collection, I’ve been picking up polish shades here and there that fit in nicely with the array of colors I already have. For the most part, I’ve been beefing up my existing collection with shades that are generally thought of when we think ‘spring’ – pale, pastel-like shades that have a fresh, soft, feminine quality to them. I know that there’s no need to stick to ‘seasonal’ colors any more, but I personally like to change the tones I wear (for both makeup and nails) each season, and typical spring shades are no exception.

I actually don’t own a large array of pale nail polishes, as I normally gravitate toward broodier, richer tones, but this season I’ve accrued five new shades that I’m totally digging, which means I now have a good handful or two of polishes that are just perfect for the spring season. My two favorites from past years have been Zoya’s Marley and MAC’s Mischievous Mint, and now joining those two are: Sally Hansen Barracuda, a pale yet bright blue; China Glaze Dandy Lyin’ Around (new from this season’s Avant Garden collection), a shimmering white; butter London’s Bossy Boots, a pale pistachio green, and Jasper (new from the Sweetie Shop Spring 2013 collection), a pale lemon yellow; and Chanel Orange Fizz, a slightly muted coral orange.

Sally Hansen Barracuda is a Complete Salon formula, which is supposed to mean that its the full meal deal, with base & top coat qualities rolled into the one polish. I actually do find these polishes to wear better without base coat, and the swatches below with sans top coat – as you can see, this baby is SHINY. There really is no need for top coat unless you need a quick drying one to get it on and get out the door. I found it did require three coats to achieve full opacity and to look it’s best, so if you’re in a hurry you may need a fast-drying top coat anyway. However, I found that it dries relatively quickly on it’s own, so its not an absolutely necessary step. Also, I have to mention that I adore the brush on these polishes – it’s wide and thin and covers almost my whole nail bed in one go. Application is a breeze!

China Glaze Dandy Lyin’ Around was a recent lemming of mine, having only first seen it on All Lacquered Up (a blog, by the way, I’m pleased to see back in action!) this past week. A couple weeks ago, Taylor of My Lucite Dreams posted about a white polish, and it looked SO lovely on her but I knew the white polish trend was NOT going to be my friend. However, when I saw Dandy Lyin’, I had a feeling that it’s softer, sparkling quality might be a way for me to try the trend, and I was right!! I really like this polish a lot, even despite the fact that it’s sheerness and slightly streaky quality requires three coats – just be careful in your application. It’s worth the effort for me as I’m loving the look on my hands! I can’t wait to try it on summer toes :) Note that no top coat was used, and I don’t feel it needs one, unless you want to get that smooth, uber-glossy look.

butter London Bossy Boots has NOT been a recent lemming; in fact, I wanted this bad boy last year but held out until a couple months ago when I got it on discount. As a general rule, I do not like green nail polish – not on others (typically) and definitely not on me. However, light greens are totally exempt and I love the way they look. I’m not 100% sold on the yellowish undertones in Bossy Boots as being the best for me, but I still enjoy this shade and am glad I finally picked it up. The application was good with no real troubles – shown is with two coats – although it would benefit from a top coat to give it a bit more gloss and shine (no top coat used in photos).

butter London Jasper was another longer-term lemming of mine since the launch of the Sweetie Shop collection earlier this year. I could have easily bought every shade from the release, but held myself back to just this one. I don’t own a single yellow, and dislike most versions of the shade, but this pale shade hooked me from the get-go. I love it on and it just screamsspring to me. I’ve read conflicting reviews on this color’s formula – I don’t have a lot of experience with pale yellows, but I think that this formula is pretty darn good. It does require a bit more attention to application, but as far as it goes this is a good formula with minimal issue, for me at least! I did go with three coats just to get the best opacity, but it wasn’t that much of a pain. Like Bossy Boots, it would benefit from a shiny top coat, which I did not use in these photos.

Chanel Orange Fizz was sort of a random buy, which happens very rarely these days. When I picked up a few things from Chanel earlier this year, I was disappointed with the spring shades released but wanted a new polish. This one grabbed my attention and I’m super-happy that I bought it, it’s a stunner! This shade is obviously more pigmented/intense than the other shades I’ve shown above, but it still has a soft quality to it that feels spring-like to me (though this will also be kick-ass in summer!) The formula is thicker (typical of many Chanel polishes, I’ve found), but flows well and is self-leveling – again, just take care in your application and you should have no problems. I love the glossiness of this polish on it’s own – no top coat needed! I used three coats in these swatches, and you can still see slight VNL, but in person it’s hardly noticeable, and you could probably opt for two coats – I’m just fussy :P

So there you have it! A handful of pretty polishes – a perfect way to shove usher in spring :)

So! What spring shades are you lemming/have you picked up? Do you go with softer shades or stick to whatever floats your boat at the time?

I was going to leave my eyeshadow collection ’till last to swatch in my ‘find the gaps’ series of posts, but the superstorm (which…is kind of lackluster – yea, there’s lots of snow, but I want some action, darn it!) seemed like the perfect time to just get ‘er done – so I did! Oh man…for those of you who have larger collections than mine, I feel sorry for you if you attempt to do this – it is a BIG EFFING ORDEAL. I started last night and got just over halfway through before both (!) arms had had enough. I continued today and after needing to re-swatch several shade categories to get them *just right*, my left arm is just burning (as you’ll notice in the photos – red spots galore!). So: enough. I’m ready to rock ‘n roll. Now – let’s get into ‘er!

Note: All shades are permanent within their respective brands except where otherwise noted.

…So. To be honest, when I started swatching all my makeup, I was originally just trying to find a way to justify new purchases – if it could be considered a shade I didn’t already own, then I would feel free to go for it. However, now I’ve discovered that being so fully aware of what I own, has made me really excited to play with my current collection, instead of seeking out new products. I especially noticed this with this eyeshadow post – there are so truly fabulous shades in there! While there are still of course colors I’d like to pick up to fill the gaps (namely – a lilac and a skintone [MY skintone, to clarify] shade, among a couple others), overall I’m WELL aware I have a ton of shades to rock out and don’t really *need* anything else at the moment. I did notice I have a lot less color than I imagined, but that’s actually OK because I don’t tend to wear it a ton and try to avoid buying a lot of it only for it to go unused. I think my stash is fairly representative of the kind of makeup I wear day to day! So SCORE for being logical in my purchases :)

I am kinda worn out from the work necessary to do this post, so I’m done now LOL. But – I have questions for you!

Do you see any gaps that I could fill? What shades make up the bulk of your eyeshadow collection?? Also – anyone bother to count how many shades I have? I’m too tired now to bother LOL

This seems to be the year of yellow eyeshadow for me – this will be my third go-around with the shade, and each time just keeps getting better! The latest version has truly blown my socks off, which is kind of amazing since yellow isn’t exactly the *easiest* shade to wear. But somehow, it’s happened, and I’m so excited to share it with you!

Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream #24 ($26CAD), a matte vibrant yellow, is part of four new shades of the Aqua Cream line-up – along with an Acid Green, Pastel Blue, and Purple. As I’m sure you’re aware, Aqua Creams are a long-lasting, waterproof, majorly pigmented cream shadow that will not budge all day long. I now own four shades, and by far #24 Yellow is the best one yet. The consistency of this product is AMAZING! It’s so unbelievably creamy and easy to apply. I think they may have improved their formula, as some of my other ones can be a bit tricky to blend. This is NOT the case with #24 – it smoothes on easily and doesn’t set too quickly, but then once it’s set, it wears like iron for hours. I had it on yesterday, in the mega heat and humidity (we had TWO thunderstorms!), and it didn’t budge an inch from 9am till 9pm.

As you can see below, #24 is pretty much a bright canary yellow, which can be a challenging shade to wear for most skin tones. However, the wonderful blendability of this shadow enables you to apply just a sheer wash of it on the lid, and because it’s a creamy finish vs powdery, it looks much more natural. I would suggest wearing a dark liner when wearing yellow however, as it helps to ground the shade a bit. I did a look wearing this that I will be showing you later in the week – I combined it with a few other shadows – and it turned out pretty darn good I think!

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Natural light

I’ll be honest – when MUFE sent this shade to me, I thought: “Oh man, really? How am I going to wear this??” but it turns out, it was SO much easier than I ever dreamed! And I am being completely truthful with you when I say I will be wearing this again and again this Summer – its just so warm and lovely and makes me think of sunshine and golden rays of light. It certainly requires a *little* bit of extra creativity – you can’t just slap it on and go – but the slight bit of extra effort it takes to pull a look together with this shade is SO worth it. Truly, don’t let the color in the pan and the swatches scare you – this is one fabulous shadow!

Stay tuned for my look with this shade later this week!

Would you consider wearing yellow eyeshadow? What looks would you create with it?

When I was in High School, I desperately wanted my prom dress to be yellow. I think it’s such a happy, fun color and I’d be OK to be surrounded by it at all times. However, when it comes to makeup, yellow and I are on strange terms. I do not like it on nails (except very pale versions) as it looks sick to me. And as an eyeshadow, I have yet to master how to wear it without it totally washing me out. It’s sort of counter-intuitive to me, because with my golden coloring, I expect this shade to totally rock my beauty world. Alas, ’till this point it has not. But there is a silver lining! After playing around with Make Up For Ever’s Eyeshadow in #2, I think I might be able to make peace with yellow :D

The second shade I was sent that follows the Pantone Spring color forecast, #2 is a matte, brilliant yellow – matching the shade Solar Power, according to the report. First of all, I have to say that I’m really digging the packaging of the MUFE eyeshadows ($22CAD) – this is my first, and it looks very cool. MUFE shadows are very pigmented, which is supposed to help them wear well. The matte shades (like this one) are stated to have maximum coverage. My inital thoughts upon swatching the shade were tentative – while it is fairly pigmented, it also looked a bit powdery, and I wondered how that would translate to eyes.

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I applied #2 to my eyelids, and my first reaction was ‘yuk!’ It just seemed to clash with my skintone somehow. However, as soon as I added some mascara (this is a MUST with a shade like this), it looked infinitely better. I think if I played around with it a bit and added some other makeup, including liner and bronze shadows, it would be a knockout look.

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I do own one other yellow shadow, MAC Bright Future (from the Style Warrior collection), which I received in a swap late last year. It didn’t feel like a proper shade to wear in Winter, so I haven’t really tried it yet. In comparing the two, they’re similar, but MAC’s has got a touch of sheen to it, and is less pigmented, with a creamier formula (below: Bright Future on top, Eyeshadow #2 on bottom).

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Even though I have trouble with yellow as a color in cosmetics, I can remember looking at this picture in YM magazine (OMG do you remember that mag? It was my absolute FAVE), in which the model was wearing yellow on her lids and looked totally divine. That’s never really gotten out of my head over the (many) years, and with this shade, I think I’m going to finally try and work the sunshine angle once and for all. Do you have any suggestions on how I should wear it best?